The Knick centers around Clive Owen’s Dr. John W. Thackery and the medical staff at New York’s Knickerbocker Hospital in the early 1900s. Owen’s Dr. Thackery proves to be an impatient, racist, drug addicted and simultaneously brilliant surgeon leading the charge at The Knick. The pilot sees Dr. Thackery introduced to and forced to hire another gifted surgeon, the African-American Dr. Algernon Edwards (André Holland), despite having no desire to integrate his hospital. Since the show is a medical drama set more than 100 years ago, it is also not for the faint of heart when it comes to blood, gore and the less than state of the art medical technology that is utilized by the surgical staff.

It would also appear that the “male antihero” character that has been gracing our TV screens over the past fifteen years isn’t going anywhere. Owen’s Dr. Thackery seems to be keeping in good company with the Tony Soprano, Don Draper, Dexter Morgan and Walter White-type characters which have proven to be so popular on cable programming. For more on The Knick, you can read Dan Casey’s glowing review of the pilot here and go behind the scenes on the period medical drama with showrunners Michael Begler and Jack Amiel here.